


And All That Could Have Been

by Ethelred



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Drabble, Drabble Collection, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Star Wars: The Last Jedi Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-02-24 08:36:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13210005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ethelred/pseuds/Ethelred
Summary: A collection of drabbles about Rey, Rose, Finn, and Poe. Post-SWTLJ.





	And All That Could Have Been

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for The Last Jedi.

Gone.  
Luke was gone. Just like that.  
Soft as a warm breeze on a summer evening, quiet as a candle dying out. Rey felt it ripple across the galaxy. She hadn’t known him for long, but his presence was comforting— maybe she saw in him the father she never found, maybe she needed answers to what was happening inside and around her.  
The Force. Such an ominous word, for something that was really quite simple. It held everything together. She could feel it, now better than before, and sense how it moved.  
How it permeated the universe.  
How Luke’s presence was missing.

It had been weeks, but she could still remember the sensation and the loss. She could also tell that General Organa had felt the exact same thing, and that it had created a huge crack in her already splintered spirit: losing people she loved and people she commanded like she did, that was more than enough to completely destroy someone. But the General was tough, and resilient, and unbearably kind; and Rey took comfort in her strength as much as she tried to give it back. 

Her close encounters with death had her mulling dreadful things over. It was common for people exposed to death to question their own relation to it, but Rey didn’t really think about her own death. It was rather the opposite.  
What about the people she loved? What if she stayed alive while they were all gone? The rebuilding of the Resistance was risky business. Finn, whom she trusted with all of her heart; and Poe, whom she had taken an instant liking to. Her boys.  
They had risked their lives multiple times already, and Rey kept dreading they would leave her on her own for good. Death made you seem rather selfish, she thought. But it wasn’t the fear of being alone per say; Rey was more worried about seeing them die before her than anything else. Not after she had understood just how much they meant to her.  
How she’s do anything to keep them safe.

Oh, and Rose. She was still in a coma, and Rey had spent countless hours at her bedside with Finn and Poe, talking, dozing off, hoping, organising. Clinging to Rose as Rose clung to life.  
She would make it through, Rey thought. She would.  
Finn had told her about their mission on Canto Bight, and how Rose had become important to him. Poe seemed to agree, and she couldn’t wait for Rose to wake up so they could finally be properly introduced. Rey had the feeling she would fit right in with the three of them. 

Her budding feelings made her situation both promising and awful— finally, after decades spent on Jakku waiting for parents who never came back, Rey felt like she really belonged.  
That Finn and Poe, wherever they were, meant home to her.  
That Rose would become someone special, too.  
But, because there is always darkness balancing the light, such happiness was tainted with one terrible fear: the risk of losing them. She remembered General Organa once again, her dreadful experiences, and how even she could not cheat death.  
Her brother, her lover, her friends. Even her son, in a way.  
All gone.  
Rey wondered if she would suffer the same fate. She would fight tooth and nail to restore the balance in the universe, unstoppable, a force of nature. But it was a dangerous path, and she was conscious of it. 

One night, after working on some spare parts from the Millennium Falcon with BB-8, Rey headed—as she usually did—to Rose’s room. It was later than usual, and she entered without a sound in case someone was already inside, careful not to startle them. Instead, what she saw made her heart swell.  
On the bunk next to Rose’s were Finn and Poe, fast asleep, entwined. Finn’s arm was dangling from the bed, as if he had been holding Rose’s hand until sleep took over. Poe was snoring softly.  
Rey felt a rush of protectiveness, seeing her boys in such a state. She took a chair and sat down between the two bunks without a sound, mindful not to wake them. Then, she took Finn’s hand in her own and Rose’s hand in the other.  
Whatever they were all dreaming of, she hoped they were peaceful dreams— until she surrendered to sleep herself.


End file.
